Recent developments in accounting;

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Recent Developments in Accounting
BY EVERETT J. SHIFFLETT PARTNER, EXECUTIVE OFFICE
Presented before the National Association of Cost Accountants, Detroit Chapter — January 1956
In considering the subject of our discussion, the question of scope arises immediately. What are the boundaries of time that delimit the term "recent" and what is a "development"? To broaden the choice, I suggest that we adopt a rather liberal construction of both terms. Growth in Membership of Professional Accounting Organizations Reflects Broader Field for Accounting Services
We would agree, I think, that one of the outstanding developments in the field of accounting in recent years has been the unprecedented rate of growth in the membership of professional accounting organi­zations.
Your own organization, the National Association of Cost Ac­countants,
had a membership of 38,000 at the close of last year, show­ing
an increase of over 103% in the last decade. The Controllers Insti­tute
now has 4,500 members — 66% more than at the end of 1945. The current membership of the American Institute of Accountants is about 27,000 which is over 200% more than ten years earlier. All these per-centages far exceed the growth in the total population of the country since 1945, which has been about 17%.
The rolls of membership of our fellow societies in other Eng­lish-
speaking countries show a similar trend. The combined Mem­bership
in the Institutes of Chartered Accountants in England, Scotland and Wales now is about 24,000, an increase of around 24% in the past eight years whereas the population of Great Britain has increased only 7% in that time. Our neighbor, Canada, has had a population in­crease
of 25% since 1945 while the membership of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, now standing at about 6,000, has increased 99% in that period.
Thus it seems pretty clear that the trained accountant is finding a broader field for his talents in our society as a whole. The reason, I think, is obvious to all of us. Broadly, it lies in the ever-growing complexity of our economy and the progress we have made in better management of our commercial and industrial enterprises. Whether,
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